Essay

Question:

To what extent has the credit crunch simply sped up the natural development of the music industry?

The credit crunch has meant that as a whole, we as a country have been spending less on entertainment; in particular music. We have been spending less and less on in store music as we have had less "real" wages due to the vast increase in unemployment and costs. This has caused local and large music stores to go into administration, for example: HMV. Zavvi, Fop, meaning that physical music sales have taken a dramatic plumit. However, at the same time downloads have taken an increase, due to the increase in internet accessibility and our nations increased laziness. 

For example the band 'Muse' have seen an increase in downloads while their physical album sales have seen a dip. However, after the release of their new live album, there would have been a rise in the physical sales, as it was a 2 part release where you could get the Bluray and CD in one package. If you downloaded it you would have to pay more money. This is one way in which the music industry is trying to keep the industry alive.

These influences are having a profound effect on the industry as music shops and CD's are disappearing left, right and centre. As downloads increase the need to leave our house to shop is slowly disappearing along with every pass time in past generation as the internet takes over.